11 Terrible Employee Reward Ideas and What You Should Do Instead

Employee rewards might seem fairly straightforward, but it’s not as simple as handing out a bonus every time someone performs well, or trying to boost productivity with a quirky treat.

The worst thing that can happen is that your new incentives come across as a gimmick. Either your team will see straight through your attempts to coax their behaviour, or your new initiative will be so off-putting that they’ll wish you hadn’t even bothered in the first place.

However, this hasn’t stopped online sources from offering 1001 ill-conceived employee reward ideas. We trawled the internet and gathered together the most ridiculous suggestions we came across. But we’re not just here to throw shade; after you’re amused and bemused, we’ll show you how to develop employee rewards ideas that actually work.

Eleven of the internet’s worst employee reward ideas

1. Jeans Day 👖

“Give out coupons that allow employees to wear jeans on a day of their choosing, or designate an all-employee jeans day.”

Even traditionally formal industries like banking and finance have started to relax their dress code, and most of the world’s top companies realise that what you wear to work isn’t that important. If you do plan on giving your employees coupons for jeans day, try to do it with a straight face.

2. Lottery Tickets 🎰

“Give them the chance to win millions, and it only costs you one dollar.”

It also makes you look like a total cheapskate. The chances of winning Europe’s Euromillions lottery, for example, are 1 in 139,838,160; maybe your team might appreciate the 1 in 139,838,160 chance that they won’t have to show up next Monday?

3. Monopoly Money 💸

“Reward employees with your own custom phoney money (or use Monopoly money) and allow them to redeem it for gifts at the end of each quarter.”

Monopoly money is a tad infantilising. Though maybe while you’re at it, you can start a black market so that people can trade their fake money with others for cigarettes or organs?

4. DJ Day 🎧

“If you have music playing in your office and there’s not already a mandatory soundtrack, consider offering the ability to choose the music for the day as a reward for employees.”

How well do you know your team’s music tastes? Are you sure you can handle a whole day of Maroon 5? Or maybe you prefer the Black Eyed Peas paired with Meatloaf? Delicious.

5. Dunk Machine 💦

“Set up a dunking machine in your parking lot. Go sit in there (in some business attire you don’t mind getting destroyed), and let your employees throw softballs at the target. It’s a fun release for them, and shows you’re one of the team.”

Unless the relationships within your team resemble those from Lord of the Flies, it’s unlikely anyone is going to find this fun. It’s also a bizarre amount of effort to go to. Why not just take everyone to a real carnival instead?

6. Talking Plaque / Fish 🐟

“Buy one of the talking photo frames available at any photo store. Place a certificate of appreciation inside, and record a personal 10-second message of appreciation in your own voice. If you’re not a fan of plaques, hire someone to rewire a “Billy Bass” or “Frankie Fish” talking fish to convey your gratitude with attitude.”

Enough said.

7. Music Video Day 📹

“Have employees create a music video (shoot, edit and show) of their favourite song. The Gangnam style song has about run its course, but the Harlem Shake and whatever is trending on YouTube is fun.”

We did the Mannequin Challenge at a company off-site once and it was dated before I even had a chance to WhatsApp the video to my mum. It’s time to let go of the dream of a being a director.

8. Singing Telegram 🦍

“Have a gorilla, or whatever creature is available, show up at work with a singing telegram about how great the employee is. Videotape the song and response and post it on YouTube or your website.”

As an introvert, this idea fills me with terror. Not only are people going to be alarmed when a singing gorilla shows up at the office, the lucky recipient might just die of embarrassment.

9. Show and Tell 👩‍🏫

“Set aside one day a month for “Show and Tell.” Cater in lunch and have employees bring in something from home (hobby, accomplishment, video game, etc.) to “show and tell” other employees about. It doesn’t have to be a trophy, just an interest—such as a cake recipe (with samples), a new video game.”

It’s fun to share your interests with coworkers and develop relationships at work, but not when everyone is forced to sit around and hear about the latest video game you’ve been playing. Why not get people to do a « lunch and learn » instead? It’s not a reward (neither is a « show and tell » to be honest), but it can give people a sense of pride in their work, without treating them like they’re still at primary school.

10. Let Them Eat Cake 🎂

“Any celebration is that much better when there’s yummy cake.”

We all love cake, but is it really a good reward? Apart from the fact that eating cake every week isn’t going to do anyone’s health any favours, it shows that you’re not putting much effort into making your rewards personal to your team. Not everyone has a sweet tooth – and you don’t want to meet the same end as Marie Antoinette.

11. King/Queen for a Day 👑

“Buy an elaborate costume jewellery kind of crown (the more elaborate and gaudy, the better) and crown them during a morning meeting. “King” for the day privileges include primo parking, free lunch at their desk and the option to leave 30 minutes early from work.”

Let’s ignore « free lunch at their desk » for a minute. For anyone familiar with the Stanford Prison Experiment, during which volunteers were assigned as « guards » or « prisoners » in a mock prison, you can probably see how this one might go wrong. People are unlikely to take well to a fake “king”, especially when they get to parade around the office in full costume with special privileges.

The seven deadly flaws of employee rewards

Ultimately, most employee reward ideas don’t work because it’s easy to see through them. “If you do this, then I’ll give you this,” is a mistake that many managers make. Rewards are meant to be a way to celebrate good work, not coerce people into carrying out specific tasks.

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, by Daniel H. Pink, is essential reading to understand the psychology behind human motivation. In it, Pink highlights seven negative effects that the « carrot and stick » approach to rewarding employees can have:

Employee reward ideas need to be unexpected, personal and meaningful

If you’re going to use rewards to motivate your team, then you need to do it wisely. Rewards shouldn’t just be used as a tool to manipulate behaviour, instead they be used as a form of recognition, and to signify to employees that you genuinely value their contributions. So, what makes a reward effective?

Firstly, financial rewards should be off the table (this might be surprising to some). In Drive, Pink highlights the large body of evidence that suggests that monetary rewards don’t actually increase motivation levels at all.

According to Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory, financial factors only affect motivation when they are lacking. For example, if your team’s salaries are below a level where they can comfortably support themselves, they are obviously going to be demotivated. However, if your team are already fairly compensated for their work, then additional monetary bonuses will have little to no impact on motivation.

Effective rewards are all about making people feel valued on a regular basis and celebrating successes in an authentic way. You can do this by making sure that they are unexpected, personal and meaningful.

Unexpected

One of the biggest problems with employee reward ideas happens when people start to perceive them as controlling. Using an “if-then” approach to rewards will interfere with an employee’s sense of autonomy and eventually lead to a decrease in motivation. Researchers at Cornell University studied 320 small businesses, half of which granted workers autonomy, the other half relied on top-down direction. The businesses that offered autonomy grew at four times the rate of the control-oriented firms and had one-third the employee turnover.

Personal

Knowing the names of people in your team is a good start, but you need more than that to make rewards work. Instead of giving the die-hard football fan in your team a spa day, why not buy them a ticket for an upcoming game instead? When a reward is personal it’s also more memorable – it makes people feel genuinely valued. A study by the American Psychological Association found that those who report feeling more valued are much more likely to be motivated to do their best and recommend their workplace to others.

Meaningful

Making rewards personal requires having a basic understanding of the people on your team, but making them meaningful requires a little more thought. Maybe you know that one of your team members has a new baby and recently had to pay for some repairs to their home. You could demonstrate that you value their recent efforts by paying for daycare and giving them the freedom to work remotely for a week so they can oversee the work. A gesture like this requires personal knowledge about your employee and an understanding of what would make a difference to them. When it isn’t tied to performance or the completion of a deadline, it has the added bonus of being unexpected too.

Key takeaways

If you’re still thinking about rewards as a way to get people to do what you want, then you need to change your mindset. Rewards are a tangible way to show employees that you value their contribution. Rewards don’t have to be expensive, but it is better to spend a bit of money than try to convince people that their ‘Jeans Day coupon’ actually required some thought and consideration on your part.

Focus on making rewards unexpected, personal and meaningful. Most people just want to know that they’re doing a good job, which is why recognition is vital.

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Auteur

Ross Brooks

Ross is a copywriter using his words to help the HR community redefine company culture and improve employee engagement. He’s also a language lover, world traveller and amateur anthropologist - which looks a lot like people watching.